Self-propelled cotton harvesting machines typically come in two varieties, cotton pickers and cotton strippers. Cotton pickers include one or more picking devices configured to pick bolls off of cotton plants in the field, while leaving as much of the plants in place as possible. Cotton strippers, on the other hand, are generally more coarse harvesting machines in which one or more harvesting drums take in some or all of the plant material with the bolls. Thus, the primary difference between the machines is the manner in which the bolls are severed from the ground and separated from the plant. In either case, once removed, the bolls are transferred to an accumulator within the cotton harvester, from which they are fed to a cotton handling system where the bolls are broken down into smaller fibers and conveyed to a baling chamber.
The cotton handling system of a typical cotton harvesting machine (e.g., cotton picker or cotton stripper) has a sequence of cooperating subsystems. Generally, a meter subsystem begins by removing bolls from the accumulator and initially breaking down the bolls. A beater subsystem further breaks down the bolls into cotton fibers. A feeder subsystem then conveys the broken down bolls or cotton fibers to the baling chamber where the cotton is gathered, and in the case of a round module baler, spiral wound and bound with a twine, net or other wrap material, prior to be ejected from the machine for later transport to the ginning mill.
Each subsystem may include powered components, such as one or more powered rollers having protrusions or agitators in the case of the meter and beater subsystems, and one or more powered rollers used to drive a conveyor system to transport the cotton to the baling chamber. Control and power systems, such as one or more electronically controlled electric or hydraulic motors, operate the powered components of the subsystems. To coordinate the sequence and interoperation of the various subsystems, it is conventional to use a rather complex arrangement of sensors, such as speed sensors measuring rotational speed of the rollers, in conjunction with proportional hydraulic valves and software controls to drive each motor selectively, resulting in independent, but coordinated control of the subsystems.